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pilot and instructor, assisting with the development of several new planes the company brought out for the commercial market inventory after the war. Lees was also stationed with the Curtiss operations in Atlantic City, New Jersey for a time, where Earl Ovington was the Manager.

Following this Lees was sent with two other pilots, J. D. Hill and Victor Vernon, to establish a Curtiss agency for the northeast area at Portland, Oregon. After demonstrating Curtiss airplanes in Oregon, Washington and Idaho and flying seaplanes on the Columbia River, Lees left Curtiss in February, 1920 to become manager of the LaGrande Airport Company, LeGrande, Oregon, to do cross-country flying and exhibition work. While there he was appointed to the State Board of Aeronautics by the Governor.

In May, 1921 Lees left Oregon and returned to Wilbur Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio. In 1922 he joined the staff of the Dayton-Wright Airplane Company as Instructor-Pilot. He also assisted with aerial photography. That fall he became affiliated with the Johnson Aeroplane Supply and Flying Service in Dayton as pilot-instructor. They operated a school, did cross-country flying, bought and sold airplanes and designed and built a few experimental planes. While in their employ he was a contestant in the several annual Air Races of that period, usually flying OX-powered planes. In 1923 he won the Flying Club Trophy at St Louis, and in 1924 the National Cash Register Trophy at Dayton, Ohio.

At Johnson Field, Dayton, on May 13th, 1924 Lees became the 9th member of the Caterpillar Club, -- an organization of persons whose lives have been saved by emergency jumps with parachutes. The silken thread of parachute fabric is made by caterpillars. Hence the name. That evening Lees was to test an Italian S.V.A. airplane which he did not like, so he borrowed a parachute at McCook Field during the afternoon just in case "he might need it." When evening came the S.V.A. was not ready, so he decided to fly an L.V.C. instead. He had made several flights in this German World War-I airplane and liked it. For no particular reason except that he had it, he put the chute on. As soon as he was airborne he was in real trouble. By using all the control he had in one direction, he managed to make a

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